No, I believe you are correct. The gong they received was Champoin Australian Roaster.

Are different competitions and should not be confused - easy as it can be.

The roasting competition run by ASCA is a new event (introduced this year) to link up with an emerging "title" called World Roasting Champion that has played out in a limited fashion over the last couple of years. Yes, that's right......another gravy train to milk.

Idea (or logic) being they hold comps in the "interested" countries and the winner from each country then gets the chance to compete in the World's event - a.k.a. the Barista and latte art comps. In 2016 some Romanian dude won the event and the year before I think it was either a Japanese guy or I can't remember without the help of Dr Google. It's been going a few years starting from a small collection arranged by the promotions of marketing departments from roaster suppliers or software tools like Cropster.

Challenge is though - this year they had just 8 spots which were opened for entries. They used Toper roasters and I'm not sure what will be at the World's, in previous years they have been Geisen's. It's a series of tests using controlled equipment and beans.

This thing is vastly different to the RASV, now known as the Australian & International Coffee Awards........which are somewhat similar to the likes of the Golden Bean and other Fine Foods events - companies enter coffees, judges evaluate and winners are applauded.

Therefore, the 2 events are not similar and should not be confused.............although people are entitled to be confused when you think that there are more than 300+ medals awarded each calendar year for all these events.............one could also be excused for feeling a bit over the whole comp/event/winner/loser/trier/ machine that sucks a significant portion of real $$ from competitors in terms of huge time and product commitments.

Personally, I wish more people would donate to worthy charities as the cost in real terms of all this back-slapping has become a bit embarrassing.

On a serious note though, Atillio and the Cosmorex team deserve to be applauded because it's damn hard work and they have demonstrated excellence over many years.